Written by

Nina Schutzman and Roberto Cruz

Poughkeepsie Journal

ONLINE

A year to the day after she was stabbed to death, Laurie Ferguson’s loved ones will have today off from watching the trial unfold in the Dutchess County Courthouse.

Justin Curran is accused of stabbing Ferguson to death and stealing her car the day before Thanksgiving in 2012. Curran, an unemployed 37-year-old father of four, was Ferguson’s neighbor in the Mobile Manor Trailer Park in Staatsburg. His trial will resume Friday. He faces three counts of second-degree murder; one count each of first-degree burglary, fourth-degree grand larceny and first-degree robbery, all felonies.

Ferguson was described by family members as a well-liked woman who loved attending services at Hyde Park United Methodist Church, knitting, exercising and gardening.

In an interview with the Journal in January, Ferguson’s family — her children, Dawn Lovell and Mike Cronk, along with his wife, Linda, and children — described the loving relationship they had with her. Her last words to both of Mike Cronk’s daughters were “I love you,” they recounted then.

Curran’s trial started last week. The jury has heard from witnesses including Tina Norman, Curran’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his children, who testified she called police after she found Ferguson’s cellphone in Curran’s bedroom three weeks after the slaying.

Bruce Petito, Curran’s lawyer, questioned state police Investigator Chris Mulkins, who responded to Norman’s call about Ferguson’s cellphone, about the length of time it took to find the phone and why it wasn’t found when police searched the house before. Mulkins did not know.

In the days following Ferguson’s killing, Curran was questioned and gave a statement, state police Investigator Francis Stabile said.

Police visited Curran on Nov. 24, and he was willing to “share his theories (on what happened) and agreed to ride around (the trailer home neighborhood) with us,” Stabile said.

(Page 2 of 2)

Curran changed his story several times about his whereabouts on Nov. 21 and into Thanksgiving of 2012, whether he knew who lived in Ferguson’s trailer and how he got a cut on his left hand that police were “interested” in, Stabile said. On Nov. 26, Curran was asked to go to police barracks, which he did.

After saying he “didn’t know how he got the cut,” Curran eventually said he cut his hand moving a fish tank, Stabile said. He showed them the fish tank, which was in his yard “primarily empty, with some kind of rocks in it,” when police took him home.

Petito questioned whether a DNA test had been run to determine whether there was any blood in the fish tank, and Stabile said no.

Curran also said he was picked up by his sister and her boyfriend on the night of Nov. 21, but changed his story about the county she lived in, then said another girl picked him up but he didn’t know her name or how to get in touch with her and at first did not admit to knowing whether a man or woman lived in Ferguson’s trailer, Stabile said.

“Some (were sustained) while she was alive, and some appeared to be sustained after death,” including “a wound that is potentially consistent with a defensive wound on her left hand,” said Dennis Chute, Dutchess County deputy medical examiner.

A 10-inch stab wound on the front of her torso indicates a fairly long knife was used, Chute said.

Curran was located in Tampa, Fla., by U.S. Marshals on Dec. 4, said state police Investigator William Popow. The 2006 Ford Freestar minivan Curran is accused of stealing from Norman also was found.

Underneath the van’s front, passenger-side seat, “We found a very large chrome or silver knife that was wrapped in a tube sock,” Popow said.